Regions
Regions represent areas on a map that will share regional stats and share a single port city. Each region will be made up of multiple tiles where you can build facilities one per tile. You start with one region unlocked at the start of the game, and you unlock more by paying to set up in those regions. There is currently no running cost for having a region unlocked, so there is no ability to decommission your presence in a region. This should change during the Offices update. Regional Statistics Each region will have many basic statistics, each contributing one way or another to the cost of doing business, the speed of production, or the demand and payment for goods. These statistics come in four basic categories. Region Properties * Common Market - Many regions are part of larger collections of regions that form a single common market. Once you are established in one member of a common market it is significantly cheaper to unlock other members of that common market. * Port Connections - This tells you weather trucks or boats are able to be used in this region to carry goods to other regions. Most regions allow both, but some allow for only one or the other. Some regions are landlocked, and can therefore only use Truck. Some are islands with no connection by road to other regions, and so only boats can be used to ship goods to or from those regions. There are several "canals" in the game that Trucks can cross (Panama, Bosporus, Suez and the English Channel) but they can otherwise not cross over water. People * Population - The total number of people living in this region. This drastically affects how much a contractor is willing to buy at one time. Large countries will have larger contracts, so they may be difficult to fulfil at first. This is displayed in millions of people. * Average Wage - This is the average income in this country, which influences how expensive it is to hire workers in this region, but also can increase demand for goods, particularly luxury good, sold there. It is measured in USD/year. * Average Skill - This is the average level of skill that an average worker with an average salary would have. The actual skill of your factories would be different, based on the wage and focus you set. Raw resources are produced without skill. It is measured as a percent where US is 100%. A country may be above or below 100% based on how they compare to the US. Institutions * Infrastructure - This is a rating of the quality of infrastructure in this region. Poor infrastructure makes nearly every action more expensive and makes it more likely that any trucks passing through this region or anyone using their port have a breakdown or delay. It is on a scale of perfect is 100% and all regions are below 100%. * Regulation - This is a rating of not just government regulations but also taxes, unions, and any other external restrictions or controls that might make doing business more expensive. A lower number means a lower cost to operation and construction. It is measured as a percent where US is 100%. A country may be above or below 100% based on how they compare to the US. * Local Price Rating '''- This is a rating for what a typical good or service could be sold for in the local market. A lower number means that goods and services are generally cheaper, making construction cheaper but also meaning you get less money from fulfilling contracts there. A higher number makes it more expensive to build, but you get more money for completing a contract there. It is measured as a percent where US is 100%. A country may be above or below 100% based on how they compare to the US. Resource Richness These represent the prevalence and ease of production for the six basic resources of the game. A perfectly suited region will have a 100% resource richness and if a place has 0% richness it will be impossible to produce there. Each rating pertains to a specific one of the six resources which are: * '''Grain Crop (rice, wheat, potatoes etc.) * Fruit Crop (most fruit and vegetables) * Exotic Crop (Spices, peppers, cotton, sugarcane, etc.) * Metal (iron, aluminium, tin etc.) * Mineral (salts, silica, limestone, etc.) * Petroleum (which includes liquid oil and natural gas) Regions of the World In a future release there are plans for randomized worlds, but as of 0.1.5 there is only one Earth world. It is based on our own world, with borders following national or regional boundaries. A brief note on how the regions are organized: Nothing in this game is not meant to be a statement over political sovereignty. How a nation is grouped into a region (or split into multiple regions) is meant only to reflect similarities of either economics or resources while keeping them around a framework of one shared port city. Because of the limitations of the map size, there are also some political realities we ignore, but these are only done when not ignoring it would harm the game. We are trying to create a global business management game, politics is largely outside of our scope.